Poukei - Bloomington

This place is awful and I’ve been to many Poke restaurants, including in Hawaii. I ordered the poke bowl with two proteins spicy salmon and regular salmon) with rice as the base. The salmon was overly fishy, which is not good and indicates it is spoiled and not safe to eat. I wanted spring mix, but all they had was iceberg lettuce, which I’ve never seen before. They were very greedy with the vegetables, only allowing you to get 4 and considering ginger one of the vegetables. I chose cucumber, avocado .50 extra), edamame, and red onion. I received a paltry amount of all of those items, 6 edamame beans, a few tiny pieces of onion, 4 halves of a cucumber, and the tiniest amount of avocado maybe 15 grams). Every place I’ve been to allows you to pack the bowl. This is the first time I have ever seen restricted mix-in vegetables. This place is a disgrace and they need to learn from other Poke places. It cost me $20 with a drink just to throw away! They are running a sham! You’ve been warned.

In general, we had a good stay and would stay here again if only for the location (connected to MOA). And the location is why you stay here. Further, the service was excellent and friendly. But there were noticeable limitations with our suite. Seeing as how the hotel is connected to the family-friendly MOA, it makes you wonder if the hotel designer has ever stayed in a hotel with their family. All the interior doors of the suite were glass (between bedroom-living, all the bathroom doors), so once kids were asleep in the living room, you literally can't turn any lights on. Who thinks this is a good idea?? And the bathroom is connected to the living room and bedroom (glass doors to both). Also, there is a motion timer in the room that shuts off everything after X-hours so by morning you have no lights or outlets or anything. Except in a suite, you have no access to the motion detector unless you go into the living room *right by* the sleeper sofa where kids are sleeping. Very poor design. But I guess it's okay to use the bathroom without lights because the doors are made of glass and that would wake up the kids anyway! Ha! Lastly, the blackout curtains are actually almost-blackout curtains. In both room (living and bedroom) they leave a gap in the middle. We had some friends in another room and theirs did the same, so that's 3/3 that left a gap. Another design flaw. Beautiful rooms, beautiful hotel, great restaurant. Excellent and friendly service. But I'm afraid the rooms designers have never stayed in a hotel before and it shows.

The food here is on the expensive side for the mall food court area, $20 or so after tax and tip. But I was really impressed with how great the sushi burrito was I got (the Firecracker). It tasted better than the similar sushi burrito I had down in Jacksonville Beach which as one might expect has plenty of fresh seafood. I also liked that it appeared the owner herself was behind the counter preparing the meals. You could see the pride she took, which is something you don't see with min wage workers at other places. Well worth trying for those of you looking for a reasonably healthy food option.

The room was spotless and very quiet. The hotel is modern and staff was terrific. And being attached to the mall is terrific. There were only two minor issues. First, the hallway was freezing! And secondly, the room air conditioning was very loud. While both very minor, they were enough to be disturbing. Otherwise this is a “5” experience.

I ordered the firecracker which was amazing. It had spicy salmon and tuna (which wasn’t too spicy, but enjoyable) very nice.Food: 4/5